Margin trading, CFDs and spread trading broker OvalX (formerly ETX) has agreed to sell its clients to rival Capital.com, former IG CEO Peter Hetherington recently took over the company's operations。

Financial details about the sale have not been disclosed, and it is unclear whether OvalX employees will join Capital with their former clients..Com。On the other hand, ETX Capital took over the client base of Alpari, a previously collapsed broker.。

Change of name and ownership

ETX Capital, which changed its name to OvalX and is owned by Guru Capital, is a Swiss private equity firm run by two former Swiss Quote executives.。

Guru Capital bought defunct Italian financial app Oval Money and merged the business with ETX while rebranding the company。

At the time, many industry professionals questioned the choice to exit the well-known and beloved ETX brand.。

complex arrangements

It now appears that Guru Capital is really just managing the combined business as part of an arrangement with Jump Capital, a US venture capital investor.。

Under the arrangement, Jump Capital partner Saurabh Sharma joined Monecor's board, while Guri Capital executives Ryan Nettles and Luca Morella are said to have acquired stakes in ETX, subject to meeting certain performance targets.。

However, the new management did not perform as well as expected, with the company reporting a loss of £9.2m in FY2021 and a decline of almost -25% in trading revenues.。

Jump Capital now appears to have withdrawn its financial support for Monecor, forcing OvalX to consider its strategic options.。

The company is said to be cutting jobs in recent weeks。

The end of niche players

ETX enjoys a niche position in a highly competitive market and is known for its highly-accessible stock desks, which offer individual trading services to active high-net-worth clients.。Prior to its acquisition by Jump Capital and its agents, the company had multiple owners.。

The broker, formerly known as Tradindex, was founded in 2002 by the inter-dealer broker Tradition, which sold the business in 2007.。The sale of the former ETX customer base seems likely to be part of the final chapter of the story。

The OvalX website does not appear to include a proposed sale of its customer base to Capital.any details of com。It is also unclear whether the company has written to these customers to inform them of the upcoming changes.。

Overall, it was a rather sad and low-key ending for parts of the business familiar to the London CFD trading and spread trading markets。